Omega Obsidian: Am I missing something?

  • Thread starter Thread starter hellzington
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hellzington said:
The Carstens Grace is the only amp from a new maker I've tried that I absolutely loved. The Grace on full blast is what the Omega wishes it was.
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Haven’t tried that one. I have quite a few recent made amps that have some cool things about them, but my only recent made amps that I’d really put in the great category aren’t suited for metal or hard rock: my Alessandro’s, Schroeder’s & Gjika 10N
 
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hellzington said:
Maybe I screwed up and should have gotten a Granophyre, idk. I thought by getting EL34's in the Obsidian it would make it sound more Marshall-like. Perhaps I should have gotten 6L6 or KT66's or something that suck a bit of midrange out of the amp.

Honestly, Shea Momomyth's stuff blows the Omegas out of the water. I used to have a Skeleton Key from the first run and that was a great metal amp. I found a ton of great tones in it. I ultimately sold it because it was a little too much gain and aggression for my everyday use, but I did really like it. I wonder if these people using the Omegas have ever played a Monomyth.
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I’ve not tried a Granophyre, but in the clips I hear that same filtered “new gear sound” or as I so often like to put it “made in concentrate oj” equivalent of tone

My friend locally has a V2 Skeleton Key that I’ve played and I’ve owned in the past 2 Monomyth modded Marshall’s. I agree, they were good and for sure a lot better than an Obsidian

I think that last part you mentioned is key not only to Omega, but why I think most new gear falls short. Many of the guys that actually make very good sounding stuff seem to be properly informed by trying other amps and doing their homework of AB comparisons with good reference points. Those comparison I think are a very important reality check. So easy think a lot of gear sounds killer on its own before taking so long to realize otherwise

Also 2 of (imo) some of the best classical guitar luthiers in the country almost always have in stock (for sale of course) examples of basically the Stradivarius equivalent of classical guitars. Most of these other luthiers are kind of left in the dark by not knowing how their guitars stack up and where they need work to improve. I think it’s the same with all these gear makers in any category. It’s necessary imo to really be great
 
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hellzington said:
Maybe I screwed up and should have gotten a Granophyre, idk. I thought by getting EL34's in the Obsidian it would make it sound more Marshall-like. Perhaps I should have gotten 6L6 or KT66's or something that suck a bit of midrange out of the amp.

Honestly, Shea Momomyth's stuff blows the Omegas out of the water. I used to have a Skeleton Key from the first run and that was a great metal amp. I found a ton of great tones in it. I ultimately sold it because it was a little too much gain and aggression for my everyday use, but I did really like it. I wonder if these people using the Omegas have ever played a Monomyth.
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I owned a Monomyth modded 1987x. I sold it because it was a bit more aggressive and chaotic than needed. It was awesome but not what I was neeeding. My granophyre has 6L6 and has British undertones mixed with 5150 but a bit drier. For whatever it’s worth. I, personally, prefer the granophyre to the Monomyth, but, can easily see it being the other way around.
 
hellzington said:
Maybe I screwed up and should have gotten a Granophyre, idk. I thought by getting EL34's in the Obsidian it would make it sound more Marshall-like. Perhaps I should have gotten 6L6 or KT66's or something that suck a bit of midrange out of the amp.

Honestly, Shea Momomyth's stuff blows the Omegas out of the water. I used to have a Skeleton Key from the first run and that was a great metal amp. I found a ton of great tones in it. I ultimately sold it because it was a little too much gain and aggression for my everyday use, but I did really like it. I wonder if these people using the Omegas have ever played a Monomyth.
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Honestly, I didn’t like either omega amps. Really wanted to, too… since they’re so bad ass looking. Their speakers they had eminence build on the other hand are great imo.

The modern tube amp builder thing of going for a tone that in the room, sounds like a processed record tone drives me nuts… the second you mic it up, it sounds terrible because all the balls are cut off. Then you have all these bands now filtering out 100hz and below on their guitar tone modeler… it’s dog shit man.
 
Bram576 said:
Honestly, I didn’t like either omega amps. Really wanted to, too… since they’re so bad ass looking. Their speakers they had eminence build on the other hand are great imo.

The modern tube amp builder thing of going for a tone that in the room, sounds like a processed record tone drives me nuts… the second you mic it up, it sounds terrible because all the balls are cut off. Then you have all these bands now filtering out 100hz and below on their guitar tone modeler… it’s dog shit man.
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They do look very cool. Gotta give them that. But so do almost all those sleek looking boutique guitars drenched in poly that can’t deliver in actual tone, but immaculate everywhere else

Yeah I think the vast majority of recent made gear (not just amps) has some degree of that synthetic sound lacking life (even the non-metal/hard rock amps), some a lot more than others like Engl’s or JVM’s. I actually think they sound much worse in person (and more lacking balls) than in a mic’d recording, but I don’t like them in either scenario
 
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hellzington said:
Yeah, I'd like a Wizard. Got my eyeballs on a Modern Classic Hybrid, but they're very hard to find. I guess I could order one but I'm sure the wait time is insane, just like with everything right now.
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Wait time is probably less than a month.

Contact

@UberschallEL34

He has one he’d probably sell
 
hellzington said:
Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just extremely disappointed. I guess it could be good for super low, downtuned stuff but I already have a Friedman Naked for that which sounds 1000 times better.

Good news is I'm on the list for a new 100w Bogner Uber Ultra, so here's hoping that's a much better amp than this.
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That was my brief experience with that amp as well. I can handle tight/dry, if the tone is big and balanced; they can still feel fun to play and sound great. But that whole ultra filtered, gated feeling thing with clangy upper mids is just gross.

I am also on the list for a 100w Uber Ultra. On the good side, I like how open and punchy it sounded in Reza's demo and it looks like you can really tweak the response/feel/eq to suit the player. That said, on the Bogner description sheet my dealer gave me, it said the amp has up to 7 (!?) gain stages....so I wonder. Lol
 
itsgoodnow said:
I owned a Monomyth modded 1987x. I sold it because it was a bit more aggressive and chaotic than needed. It was awesome but not what I was neeeding. My granophyre has 6L6 and has British undertones mixed with 5150 but a bit drier. For whatever it’s worth. I, personally, prefer the granophyre to the Monomyth, but, can easily see it being the other way around.
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I also had a Monomyth 1987x and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Had a huge low end response which I loved, but otherwise the tone was clanky, metallic, and too modern for my taste. The Gower 2203x I have now is much more to my liking.
 
MetalHeadMike said:
I also had a Monomyth 1987x and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Had a huge low end response which I loved, but otherwise the tone was clanky, metallic, and too modern for my taste. The Gower 2203x I have now is much more to my liking.
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Agreed. That wasn’t really my thing. I have a gower KK+ That’s more my sound. Dan is great to work with.
 
MetalHeadMike said:
I also had a Monomyth 1987x and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Had a huge low end response which I loved, but otherwise the tone was clanky, metallic, and too modern for my taste. The Gower 2203x I have now is much more to my liking.
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My buddy used to own that Gower you have now. That was such a killer amp.
 
The negatives:
  • Frankly, both the gain channels sound like shit.
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Man , that's not good , what a terrible feeling it is to plug into an amp that you had high hopes for and it sounds terrible .
 
ZEN Amps said:
Out of interest what was the response?
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The guy I've been speaking to at Omega said he would return it but that he had to contact some other guy and that he'd be in touch. I haven't heard anything back yet, but it's all been over a weekend.
 
MetalHeadMike said:
I also had a Monomyth 1987x and couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Had a huge low end response which I loved, but otherwise the tone was clanky, metallic, and too modern for my taste. The Gower 2203x I have now is much more to my liking.
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I liked my Monomyth but the two Gowers I had were godly. I am on Dan's list to have another KK++ built. Not his fault but as usual everything is running way behind. He quoted me August and when I contacted him for an update in June he said it would likely be winter before he could mod an amp for me. Can't wait though!
 
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mhenson42 said:
I’ve owned countless wizards and I like tend the 6L versions better than the el34, which is crazy for me as I’ve always been an el34 guy. My 6L MTL crushes. I had a 6L MC 50w that was right there with it.
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Interesting. I was pretty locked in on an EL34 since I'm more of a Marshall guy. Could you provide more details?
 
mhenson42 said:
I’ve owned countless wizards and I like tend the 6L versions better than the el34, which is crazy for me as I’ve always been an el34 guy. My 6L MTL crushes. I had a 6L MC 50w that was right there with it.
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Can confirm the MC 6l crushes.
 
UPDATE: I got a text from Mike, who I think is the builder of the amps (I had been dealing with Paul, who I think is the sales guy).

He was very nice and gave great customer service. He said he thinks something is wrong with the amp, like a failed capacitor or resistor. He said most people describe the Obsidian as "on the dark side with a big low mid punch, not overly bright and nasal." I told him that "on the dark side with a big low mid punch" was the last phrase I'd use to describe this amp. At his request, I sent my settings, which is what led him to believe something is wrong with the amp.

They're going to send me a return label and examine the amp. If there was something wrong, they said they'd ship it back to me at no charge. This seemed very reasonable to me, so I accepted. I hope something indeed is wrong the amp and it ends up sounding awesome after they look at it, but I'm keeping my hopes in check.

Either way, it was great customer service especially reaching out on a Sunday. Fingers crossed.
 
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